No change to Peavy's list; he could stay in SD

2008-11-20T11:01:18-05:00

2008-11-20T11:01:18-05:00

In the wake of the Padres' struggles in finding the right match for a Jake Peavy trade, Peavy's agent, Barry Axelrod, said that he has not updated the original list of five teams to which Peavy would agree to be dealt. Furthermore, Axelrod said again that the oft-cited list of five that included the Braves, Cubs, Dodgers, Cardinals and Astros was only intended to provide a guide for the types of teams and cities the pitcher might consider approving. "I have not mentioned any other teams,'' Axelrod told SI.com. "We are not the BCS. We're not revising our standings every week.'' Axelrod did mention that the "National League West would be of interest, but for the Rockies.'' It's clear Peavy would much prefer to stay in the NL, likes the west, wants to contend and appears to want to avoid ballparks that are hitters' parks, with that last preference explaining the Colorado exception. Peavy has $63 million and four years to go on his Padres deal, but more importantly, he has a full no-trade clause the next two years. Playing off Padres GM Kevin Towers' remark from a couple weeks ago that "that train has left the station,'' meaning Peavy will surely be traded, Axelrod reminds them again that "we have the brake.'' Axelrod wouldn't rule out the possibility that Peavy stays with San Diego. "I think there's that chance,'' he said. "But the other side of the coin is, if you're going to have payroll difficulties, is Jake going to be able to withstand the frustration level?'' Towers recently said publicly they are back to "square one'' after talks with the Braves broke off. Braves GM Frank Wren said by phone that they are currently exploring other pitching possibilities -- most likely free-agents Derek Lowe and A.J. Burnett -- but some baseball officials still believe the Braves provide Towers' best chance to make a deal. Atlanta has a bevy of well-regarded young players, and the sides discussed deals that would have included some combination of shortstop Yunel Escobar, young pitchers Charlie Morton or Jo-Jo Reyes and outfield prospect Gorkys Hernandez, but couldn't ultimately agree on a deal. Among the other listed teams, the Cardinals haven't shown interest in adding a big-name starter, the Astros don't have the prospects, Towers said he'd need a third or fourth team to work something out with the Cubs and the Dodgers may be concentrating on many other fronts now, possibly including top free-agent pitcher CC Sabathia. http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/100/64/thumb/Heyman_Jon.png 0 NY

Jon Heyman

New York 10084 25141 In the wake of the Padres' struggles in finding the right match for a Jake Peavy trade, Peavy's agent, Barry Axelrod, said that he has not updated the original list of five teams to which Peavy would agree to be dealt. Furthermore, Axelrod said again that the oft-cited list of five that included the Braves, Cubs, Dodgers, Cardinals and Astros was only intended to provide a guide for the types of teams and cities the pitcher might consider approving. "I have not mentioned any other teams,'' Axelrod told SI.com. "We are not the BCS. We're not revising our standings every week.'' Axelrod wouldn't rule out the possibility that Peavy stays with San Diego. "I think there's that chance,'' he said.